Three fascinating exhibitions are on view through November 13 at the Saco Museum/Dyer Library.

The Dyer Library and Saco Museum are proud to celebrate with Thornton Academy on the occasion of its 200th anniversary. Through exhibits at both the Saco Museum and the Dyer Library, Thornton's story as Maine's ninth-oldest incorporated institution or business will unfold through documents, artifacts and photos about its academic program, campus and influence and about its representation of the high ideals under which the new nation's first academies were founded. At its founding in 1811, Thornton Academy educated boys and girls from all over Maine and New England, generally the children of the upper middle class and wealthy who could afford both tuition and boarding.

In 1889, when Thornton reopened on its current campus, it began a new phase of its founding purpose to be a private school serving a public good. Integral to Thornton's values and focus throughout have been the principles of "educating students for a changing world" and "it is all about everything." The exhibit traces the way Thornton curriculum changed with the world, and it also demonstrates the breadth of its students' involvement not just in academics but in civic, social, academic and athletic endeavors.

Two other exhibitions are presented in conjunction with the Maine Drawing Project.

The Maine Drawing Project is a statewide collaboration of arts organizations that have agreed to present exhibitions on the subject of drawing in 2011. Among the Saco Museum's offerings is Drawn from the River: Drawings by Artists of the Saco River Valley, featuring 19th-century drawings by Charles Henry Granger, Gibeon Elden Bradbury, and the remarkable Akers family of Salmon Falls. Nearly 70 drawings-many of which have never before been publicly displayed-were selected from the museum's collections in order to give a sense of the variety of drawing media and subjects that drew the inspiration of Maine artists in the 1800s.

Also presented in conjunction with the Maine Drawing Project, Late Seasons of Great Pond features a series of 16 seasonal drawings of Biddeford Pool by artist Christy Bergland, capturing the landscape of southern Maine using a variety of drawing media. Late Seasons of Great Pond explores the view outside her Biddeford Pool studio in a series of 16 images, depicting four quadrants of the view from each of four seasons: late summer, late fall, late winter, and late spring, over a full calendar year. Different drawing media were selected to reflect the distinct feel of each season. The 16 drawings are presented here together for the first time, giving a rare artist's view into the change of seasons in a single place over the course of a year.

For more information, please visit www.dyerlibrarysacomuseum.org or call (207) 283-3861.